A new study conducted by the Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA) has found that perceptions of Beijing vary among countries that are members of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing agreement. While people in Australia, Canada, and the UK share negative views of Beijing, Americans are the least concerned about China’s military power and influence on democracy. Australians, on the other hand, have a less negative view of Beijing’s foreign policy compared to residents of the UK and Canada.
New Zealanders have recently elected a more conservative government that is more suspicious of Beijing than its predecessors. The NZ government is now seeking public support for joining Pillar Two of the AUKUS pact, which covers technology sharing.
Despite concerns about Chinese technology and allegations of spy equipment embedded in hardware and Trojan horses in software, people in all surveyed countries had a neutral or close-to-neutral view of Chinese technology. New Zealand was an outlier with a more positive outlook.
Attitudes towards trade with China were just below neutral due to China being a major trading partner for all Five Eyes nations. However, Chinese investment was viewed with suspicion along with Beijing’s influence on democracy and military power.
The study also revealed societal differences in attitudes towards China. There were no notable differences between genders but those with higher education tended to be slightly more positive toward Beijing than those who only completed secondary or high school education. Younger respondents also held more positive views compared to older ones.
Political allegiance played a role in Americans’ attitudes towards China, with Democrats being less negative than Independents or Republicans. In contrast, there was little difference among party supporters’ views in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the UK.
Social interaction was found to be influential in shaping attitudes towards China. Those who had never traveled to China or interacted with Chinese people from mainland China held more negative views compared to others.
public attitudes across Five Eyes nations were similar and driven by factors such as China’s foreign policy image and its threat to democracy. The concerns raised by governments regarding Chinese Communist Party interference are reflected in public attitudes as well.
The researchers questioned whether a common narrative defending liberal democracy against an authoritarian threat from China could bring these nations closer together but warned that consensus towards Beijing could potentially fragment along demographic lines internally within each country.